Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging
Professor: Institute of Neurology, University College London
Honorary Consultant: The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, UK

Bio-sketch

Karl Friston is a theoretical neuroscientist and authority on brain
imaging. He invented statistical parametric mapping (SPM), voxel-based
morphometry (VBM) and dynamic causal modelling (DCM). These contributions were
motivated by schizophrenia research and theoretical studies of value-learning,
formulated as the dysconnection hypothesis of schizophrenia. Mathematical contributions include variational
Laplacian procedures and generalized filtering for hierarchical Bayesian model
inversion. Friston currently works on models of functional integration in the
human brain and the principles that underlie neuronal interactions. His
main contribution to theoretical neurobiology is a free-energy principle for
action and perception (active inference). Friston received the first Young
Investigators Award in Human Brain Mapping (1996) and was elected a Fellow of
the Academy of Medical Sciences (1999). In 2000 he was President of the
international Organization of Human Brain Mapping. In 2003 he was awarded the
Minerva Golden Brain Award and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in
2006. In 2008 he received a Medal, College de France and an Honorary Doctorate
from the University of York in 2011. He became of Fellow of the Royal Society
of Biology in 2012, received the Weldon Memorial prize and Medal in 2013 for
contributions to mathematical biology and was elected as a member of EMBO
(excellence in the life sciences) in 2014 and
the Academia Europaea in (2015). He was the 2016 recipient of theCharles Branch Award for unparalleled
breakthroughs in Brain Research and the Glass Brain Award - a lifetime
achievement award in the field of human brain mapping. He holds Honorary
Doctorates from the University of Zurich and Radboud University.